Bosun Lawal scored the only goal of the game as Stoke City defeated Birmingham City at the Bet365 Stadium
Chris Davies reacts during the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Birmingham City (Image: Getty Images)
Chris Davies blamed Birmingham City’s defeat to Stoke City on their sluggish start.
Blues have suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time under Davies and have lost their last three games without scoring including the Carabao Cup exit to Port Vale.
Stoke capitalised on some early lapses to score through Bosun Lawal and Blues couldn’t hit back.
“It was a tough match,” said Davies. “I knew it would be a tough match coming to Stoke, everyone knows that.
“I think we started the game too slowly, that was the reason for the defeat because we were too slow to win duels, second balls, really impose ourselves in what was clearly going to be a challenging start and that culminated in them scoring a goal from a set piece which was very disappointing.
“A little bit like our last match, we were on the back foot in the game quite early because of that and from that point on we started to grow back into the game. From half-time we were looking more like ourselves and that continued all the way through to the end.”
Blues had 58 percent possession and entered the Potters’ final third on countless occasions in the second half without creating a gilt-edged chance.
Jay Stansfield saw a goal-bound effort blocked by Lawal and Demarai Gray miscued a volley late on.
But, statistically speaking, Blues have only worked the goalkeeper on one occasion in their past three matches.
Davies said: “It’s been a bit of a familiar story in the last two games. We’ve had the lion’s share of the games, possession, a certain level of dominance, arriving in the final third a lot, but not then creating big chances from that.
“The biggest being Jay’s shot in the first half that they blocked well. Dimmy had a decent volleyed chance in the second half. That was the frustrating part but ultimately the slow start has cost us.”
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